Charlie Hays knows two things: how to steal, and the red—the rage that keeps him going. In Wanted when a last minute heist goes bad, he kidnaps the only witness, Addie Battes. But just when everyone begins to think he has gone and made the biggest mistake of his criminal career Charlie wonders if he hasn't made the best one.

Every love story has two sides…

A native of New Jersey and lifelong nerd, Amanda Lance recently completed her Master in Liberal Arts at Thomas Edison State College after her BA in English Literature and AFA in creative writing.
She currently resides in Easton Pennsylvania with her boyfriend and their spoiled hound dog. She is a cliché book nerd who is terrible at math, clinically obsessive, and prone to addictive behavior. She may or may not be a recluse.

Expecting her to run away, I never imagined her to move her hand on top of mine. It was a simple thing, but it made me relax and release the rail—the first of many things I was ‘bout to let go.

Like a couple of magnets, our arms moved together too, making the rest of my anger fall away. It was the first time in a long while I hadn’t felt the pinch of rage on the surface, and it reminded me of being naked in front of a girl for the first time…that fear of bein’ laughed at, your pride hanging out to dry. But as spooked as it made me, I knew even then that it wasn’t all bad, that maybe it was an okay way to feel—that she made me feel that way.

“Did anybody bother you?” I asked. She smiled and I knew she was gonna answer like a smartass.

“Polo’s whistling got to me after awhile.”

I couldn’t hide my smile. “That ain't what I meant.”

“I know,” she admitted. “No, no one bothered me. It was like I was invisible.”

I nodded, pretty sure that my brain and mouth wouldn’t work again if I tried to express what I wanted to. Instead, I just sighed and she did the same.

“Polo said you, um—paid off some people to leave me alone?”

The ship gossip. I should have figured. I shook my head. “He wasn’t supposed to do that.”

“So it’s true?” she said between biting her lip.

I didn’t have to answer for her to already know the answer, so I kept quiet and stared out at the water. I didn’t regret paying off some of the guys, but I wish she hadn’t known about it, neither. I wanted her to have confidence in me, to think I could handle things all by myself. I’d wanted people to be able to rely on be before, though not nearly that bad, and it didn’t feel as important as now.

“And here I thought I was blending in so well.”

Was she serious? I looked at her and grinned. “Not with those legs.” If I had a sock I woulda jammed it straight down my throat, ‟cause apparently she didn’t like me talking ‟bout how nice her legs were. I almost wanted to laugh—if she only knew what I was really thinkin’ most of the time.

She took her hand away from mine, and the second she did I looked away from her, too embarrassed at myself to even apologize again. And even though I wasn’t looking straight at her I could feel that awkwardness between us—pictured how bad she was blushin’.

I didn’t think I’d get so lucky to have her touch me again when she rested her forehead against the side of my shoulder. Even though we weren’t touching skin to skin, it startled me so bad that I almost turned to stone ‘cept for looking down at her. Maybe she was messing with me, but I didn’t care. This felt way too good.

Taking it a step further, I started playing with her messy hair, laughing to myself that there was any of it still up at all. Unable to help myself, I put my nose up against her hair and pulled out that tie thing in there and breathed deep. With all her other smells, I was sure I caught a whiff of the sea there.

Addie’s heart started to beat faster when I made sure her hair thing was around her wrist. Mine went in faster too and I blamed that for why I was so dizzy. When I told myself that though, I knew it was a lie. She was what was making me dizzy, what was giving my lungs such a hard time and tearing up my stomach the last couple of days. And though it hurt like hell, it was still the best I’d ever felt in my whole damn life.

I’d never been in love before, but now that I was—I could understand how people went crazy.